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This research explores diagnostic radiography students' perceptions of professionalism and how they learn and develop their understanding of what it means to be a professional. The research takes place at a time when advances in technology, expansion of roles, demands for public service (Hilton, 2004) and economic productivity (Bloor and Maynard, 2006) generate a multitude of competing professional expectations. BSc. (Hons) Radiography courses rely upon the clinical environment to support the development of professionalism. However, this often undermines professional development, offering its own hidden curriculum that contradicts what is taught within the academic environment (Satterwhite et al, 2000). Subsequently educators are urged to develop evidence based curricula that give attention to the context of practice and the hidden curriculum in order to ensure graduates emerge able to deal with the complexities of practice and espouse to a multidimensional professional ideology. This longitudinal study adopted a mixed method approach to gather quantitative and qualitative data and sought to establish what one cohort of undergraduate students knew about professionalism and how this came to be learnt as they journeyed through a year long clinical placement. An original Likert style questionnaire was created to assess attitudes towards a range of professional expectations. Over the course of the year, 18 participants completed 3 questionnaires. Although a repeated measure Multi-factorial Analysis of Variance revealed that mean attitude scores were overall positively orientated, a wide range of attitudes existed. No change in the strength of attitude or convergence was observed over time. Semi - structured interviews with ten participants supported the findings of the questionnaire and illustrated the dynamics of becoming a professional. The study showed how personal frames of reference and factors within the environment interrelated to destabilise progressive professional development by weakening some professional ideals and preserving a narrow professional identity centred on technical competence. A hidden curriculum of speed and efficiency created professionals orientated towards meeting the needs of self and the organisation rather than patients or the profession. It was concluded that professional development fell short of meeting expected requirements. The curriculum and the values and practices embedded within it did not transform personal perspectives of what it means to be a professional radiographer. There was disparity between the intended aims of the curriculum and the outcomes achieved. The findings provided an evidence base for purposeful curriculum revision that sought to attend to the apparent deficits of learning.

Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is believed to be a key ingredient in delivering high quality patient care and addressing failings within the NHS. The means to improving interprofessional collaboration within healthcare teams is unquestionably through interprofessional education (IPE). This is a global concern, and as such it is important to drive the agenda forward within my own profession of diagnostic radiography. Consequently, the aim of this research study is to explore diagnostic radiography students' perception of interprofessional collaboration and the factors that influence it. The ultimate purpose being to utilise the findings of this study to better prepare diagnostic radiography students for collaboration through improvements in the interprofessional education curriculum. A phenomenological approach was used, and semi-structured interviews were carried out using carefully constructed vignettes as prompts. The vignettes reflected interprofessional collaborative teamwork and included ineffective collaboration to allow for comment on the factors perceived to influence it. A sample of twelve third year diagnostic radiography students from a London University participated in the study. The data was analysed using thematic analysis as specified by Colaizzi (1978). The overarching themes that emerged were: ❖ Personal capabilities ❖ Skills Mix ❖ Interpersonal relationships ❖ Radiography culture ❖ Organisation/environment With a central theme of role-taking The study concluded that diagnostic radiography students appear ill-equipped for interprofessional collaborative teamwork. The analysis shows that the students are 6 lacking in leadership capabilities needed to navigate the persuasive hidden curriculum and resist normalisation into the culture of compliance of the team or organisation. Furthermore, the results oppose findings on professional identity, which is considered to cause turf protectionism and tribalism hindering collaboration. Instead this study proposes that a strong professional identity breeds confidence and resilience aiding collaboration. It is not just IPE that influences collaboration however. Organisational pressures such as funding, time frames and workload appear complicit in fuelling a culture of compliance. A representation of a model of profession social closure is presented, demonstrating similarities and differences from Witz's (1992) model, based on the perceptions of a small group of diagnostic radiography students. This small-scale study rejects the suggestion that professions work as a single entity to demarcate with domination and subordination. There were no perceived exclusion strategies between the subordinate professions. Instead, it suggests that exclusion occurs between in and out groups with normalisation to the group. Inclusionary strategies through advanced expert knowledge appears to be successful with improved collaboration between dominant and subordinate professions. Enhancing interprofessional collaboration is recommended through application of the three successive levels of transformative learning within the diagnostic radiography curriculum. This should include strengthening professional identity, continued interprofessional socialisation and the introduction of leadership skills alongside reflective practice, to enable students to negotiate the hidden curriculum.